Urban Renewal in the 20th Century

The years 1950-70 brought a “New Boston” through major urban renewal projects. A “white flight” to the suburbs with a shrinking tax base, economic blight, aging tenements and a declining infrastructure, and poor leadership took its toll. Boston teetered on the edge of bankruptcy by the 1950’s as downtown buildings approached a 50% occupancy rate at its worst and whole townhouses in the Back Bay sold at a fraction of a small condo there today. After years of debate over revitalizing Boston, the new City planners won and the neighborhoods lost.

William F. Callahan, Commissioner of Public Works, drew up the Master Highway Plan for Metropolitan Boston with the assistance of federal highway funds. Parts of the financial district, Chinatown, and the North End were demolished to make way for the Central Artery and Expressways, cutting off the city from the waterfront above ground. Below ground, South Station Tunnel (now the Thomas P. O’Neil Jr. Tunnel), was finished by 1959 and the Callahan Tunnel (named after William’s son killed in WWII) opened in 1961 by the Sumner Tunnel.

The New York Streets section of the South End went between 1952 and 19xx. Bordered by Albany and Harrison Avenues and Troy and Way Streets, the streets were named in 1842 after cities served by the railroad ties between Boston and Albany, NY. Neighborhood associations were unknown and the project was strictly a public and private partnership designed to bring new industries to Boston and boost its tax base. One former resident of the blocks recalled that the City would shut off streetlights some nights to intimidate residents into leaving.

The Prudential Tower and Complex rose next in 1960-64 on a former Albany railroad yard. It was the second-largest tower in the world outside the Empire State Building, but not everyone liked the boxy look. One observer noted that it looked like the box that Trinity Church came in. It came to be known affectionately as the familiar and benign “Pru”; although, the “towers on an island” and major departure from the rest of Back Bay are now out of vogue architecture.

The West End blocks were next to go, causing a much greater stir. “Westie” once resembled the North End or Beacon Hill with tightly-packed buildings, meandering streets and small businesses. Irish and Italian immigrants followed by African Americans and Jews who escaped persecution in Europe were its chief residents. It was the most ethnically diverse area of Boston after the  white, mostly Protestant, middle class had long taken flight to the suburbs.  

The Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) replaced the Boston Housing Commission under Mayor John Hynes in 1957 and in 1959 the wrecking balls arrived. In all, 46 acres of the West End were cleared, displacing about 3,000 housing units as 7,500 residents were forced to move. In its place went up the pricey Charles River Park where “If you lived here, you’d be home by now”, but the five new residential buildings only had 477 units.

Gone with the West End were Leverett (c. 1733), Chambers (1788), Poplar (1800), Parkman (Vine in 1806) and North and South Allen Streets (1807). New were a nouveau Thoreau, Hawthorne, and Emerson Place. Only Blossom Street (1803) of the old West End survives.

 

A side note to the West End is its most famed resident, Leonard Nimoy, the Vulcan “Mr. Spock” in Star Trek movies. Nimoy had attended synagogue at the Vilna Shul in the West End with his grandfather.

“The special moment when the Kohanin blessed the assembly moved me deeply, for it possessed a great sense of magic and theatricality … I had heard that this indwelling Spirit of God was too powerful, too beautiful, too awesome for any mortal to look upon and survive, and so I obediently covered my face with my hands. But of course, I had to peek”.

 The blessing traced the Hebrew letter “shin” for “Shaddai” or “Almighty God” shown in the hands above. In the second year of Star Trek, Nimoy felt the need for a special hand blessing for his Vulcan Queen. He took the one-handed “shin” from his boyhood memories as the sign for “live long and prosper”. The second Vilna Shul at Phillips Street is still a thriving center for Jewish life on Beacon Hill and an occasional destination for the visiting “Trekkie”.

The handwriting was on the wall after the fall of the West End. Powerful citizen groups formed to protect their neighborhoods. The new Mayor John Collins offered a “planning with people” policy and worked together with the groups, historical preservation societies and the financial elite known as “the Vault”.  Edward Logue, “The Master Builder” and “Mr. Urban Renewal”, headed up the BRA in 1961 and spearheaded the next two great projects: Government Center and the Faneuil Hall/Quincy Marketplace.

Government Center once resembled the old West End with its meandering streets and tight blocks, but this time very careful consideration was given to the displaced. There were 440 families living in the “project area” of 33 acres of land, mostly white. All were attended by BRA relocation teams of “home finder” social workers. Forty-six businesses were also carefully relocated. Among those, the present Brattle Bookstore on Cornhill put up a fuss, but preservationists for the “Old Howard Theater” carried the banner for restoration. It was the oldest standing theater in America at the time, if not the world, but it went under the wrecking ball with all the others. Its history is found in the chapter on Government Center.

Parts of Court, Hanover, Portland, and Washington Streets were taken and all of Bowker, Brattle, Chardon, Cornhill, Friend, Howard, Pitts and Sudbury. A longer New Sudbury and a widened Cambridge and xxxx Streets took their places. Completed from 19xx-xx, the buildings were unremarkable except for the curious selection of “Brutalist” architecture for Boston City Hall. Like Mr. Spock, perhaps its architects had boyhood memories of life on the far-off planet Vulcan.   

Faneuil Hall Marketplace, opened in 1976, was a pioneer of the “festival marketplace“concept. It is now the 7^th most visited place in the world with 18 million visitors annually. Urban renewal brought all the successes envisioned, despite its rocky road, and continued up to the $   billion Central Artery/Tunnel Project (CA/T), or “Big Dig” completed in 2007.

Expansion of Boston in the 18th and 19th Century

The Shawmut peninsula had plenty of shoreline with flats, marshes and low-lying islands in the harbor. To the west of the Neck (at left on the map) lay the great back bay of the Charles River and above it West Cove. To the north lay Mill Cove, to the east lay the Town Cove and below it the South Cove by Fort Point Channel. Charles Town and South Boston were peninsulas while East Boston originally consisted of two large islands and three small ones.

Land reclamation came first by “wharfing out” at the perimeter of the sea, later filling in the slips between the wharfs at Charles Town and the Town Cove of Boston. By 1800, the Charlestown Bridge connected Boston to the north and the West Bridge to Cambridge to the west. Mill Cove was dammed, becoming Mill Pond, as well as the head of the cove between Charlestown and present Somerville.

By 1852, East and West Coves had been filled in by the Neck along with Mill Pond at present Haymarket Square, tripling Boston’s size. The Back Bay was filled in around 1880 and quadrupled the size of the City. By 1916, thousands of acres were filled in. Noddles Island (East Boston) was joined with Hog Island (Orient Heights) while Apple, Bird, and Governor’s Islands were joined together as Logan Airport by 1950.

Boston also annexed some surrounding towns in the 1800’s; including, Allston, Brighton, Charlestown, Dorchester, East Boston, Hyde Park, Jamaica Plain, Mattapan, Roslindale, Roxbury, South Boston, and West Roxbury as Suffolk County.

A Street Laying-Out Department was formed by the City and has issued reports since 1834. A glance at a report of the alleys, avenues, courts, circles, corners, squares, places, parks, public streets, lanes, roads, terraces, yards, ways and footways now shows many thousands of entries.

A Short History of Massachusetts Place Names: The Book of Possessions and the Street Directory of 1708

The Boston Book of Possessions

The “Book of Possessions of the Inhabitants of Boston” was written between 16xx and 16xx by William Aspinwall, the town Notary. It is also called the “Domesday Book” in the tradition of William the Conqueror’s Book of 1086, recording private properties across England.  In 1905, the City of Boston published George Lamb’s compilation of the Book, including a series of maps drawn by Lamb showing land owners in 1630, 1640 and 1645. The maps weren’t quite accurate, but provide an excellent view of ancient Boston as a town in 1630.

The Shawmut peninsula was connected to the mainland by an isthmus along the south end of present Washington Street called the Boston or Roxbury Neck, terminating at a Gate by Dover Street. All who entered Boston on foot passed through the Gate and past the gallows, which was often flooded at high tide. The Neck served its purpose for more than 200 years and millennia before that as an Indian path.

The long Washington Street can be seen above from the Neck Colbron’s Field to Bendell’s Cove on the right. Bendell’s Cove, named after Edward Bendell, became the town dock where most of Boston’s business was conducted and was later filled in to become Dock Square in the area of Faneuil Hall. Off Blackstone’s Point on West Hill, looking out toward the Charles was the future Charles Street, lower Beacon Hill, and Boston Gardens under water. Copp’s Hill at the present North End (its own peninsula at the time) at the far right of the map was joined to the peninsula when Mill Pond was filled in by leveling the Beacon hills in the mid-1800’s.

Corn Hill, at the bottom of the map was flattened. A shortened Cornhill Street can still be found as the gently sloping curve hugging the buildings on the south side of Government Center Plaza by the steaming kettle. Cornhill was once the site of publishers, writers, booksellers, bookbinders, and literati for more than a century, now just a sloping curve but still officially a street.

The Boston Street Directory of 1708

The shape of Boston didn’t change much since 1630 for another 200 years, but the population grew. New residences followed old pathways and streets took shape.  In 1701, the town Selectmen ordered a record of the streets and ways to be made and Bartholomew Green published it in 1708 in a broadside named “The Names of the STREETS, Lanes & Alleys, Within the Town of Boston in New England”.  It was the first street directory in America.

Most of the 110 streets were named prior to the broadside, but current street directories show 1708 as the earliest official date of origin. One landmark led to another; often corners, farms, pastures, wharfs and the occasional tenement. There was a Cow Lane named later, but streets were formed more along the landscape features than cow paths.

The first and most important street entered Boston across the Neck from Roxbury and called Orange Street, described as “The broad Street or Way from the Old Fortification on the Neck, leading into Town as far as the late Deacon Eliot’s corner”. Orange, King, Queen and Marlborough Streets (not the present one) were named around the same time, likely due to William of the House of Orange. William and his Queen, Mary Stuart, ascended to the throne of England in 1689 with the assistance of the Duke of Marlborough and the promise of securing Protestantism in England. The Boston Puritans must have been jubilant at the news. Today, in the name of the Orange Line after the street there is still the echo of the House of Orange.   

 “The Way leading from the Mansion House of the late Simon Lynde, Esq., by Captain Southack’s, extending as far as Col. Townsend’s corner” was “Trea Mount” or Tremont.  Summer Street was “The street passing easterly from Dr. Oakes corner in Newbury Street, passing by the house of Capt. Timothy Clark, extending to the sea”. Cambridge Street was “The way leading from Emmon’s Corner passing by Justice Lynde’s Pasture, extending from thence westerly to the sea”. And Beacon Street was “The Way leading from Mrs. Whetcomb’s corner Westerly through the upper side of the Common, and so down to the Sea”.  The three steep peaks of the Shawmut peninsula surrounded by water had most roads leading down to the sea.

The “Common” was designated as a pasture in 1634 (until 1830), and the “Latin School” on School Street founded in 1635 gave that street name in perpetuity. Church Square is gone, but Clark’s became North Square by the present Paul Revere house. Dock Square, down by Faneuil Hall, was razed but is still an official address. Two meeting-houses are identified in the Directory as well as a “watering place”, a ferry and a windmill.

There were no shortages of taverns in Boston. Beer and ale could be found at the Old Brew House, the Castle Tavern, and the Signs of the Orange Tree, the Black Horse, the Swan, the Star, and the Dragon. Since beer was drunk more often than water, even at breakfast, it could be had by take-out. A few business establishments appear as Cox the Butchers shop, Mr. Clarks the Pewterers shop, Mr. Indicott’s and Mr. Kenny’s shops and the Corn Market.

Trades were found at Coopers, Tanners, and Merchants Row and goods at Milk, Flounder, Pudding, Beer, Lime, Mackerel, Crab and White Bread Alley. As a port city surrounded by water, there were multiple nautical references in the streets at Creek, Dock, Fish, Ferry, Fleet, Marsh, Pond, Sea, Salt, Ship and Water Streets and a later Atlantic Avenue in 1868.  

A Short History of Massachusetts Place Names: Explorers and Colonists in the 17th Century

Explorers and Colonists in the 17^th Century

Bartholomew Gosnold (1572-1607) was the first documented European to step foot in New England by way of Maine and then down the coast to Provincetown in 1602. He established the first English colony on New England soil. He also named Cape Cod for its abundance of cod fish and found “many fair islands" he named the Elizabeth Islands after the Queen. Another island he found abundant grapes and vineyards and named after his daughter, Martha. On Cuttyhunk Island, once known by the impressive Indian name of Poocuohhunkkunnah, the little town of Gosnold (population 86) erected the Gosnold Tower in his memory in 19xx.

The pedigree of Captain John Smith (1579-1632) is so ancient that historians of Lincoln County, England rarely allude to it. He was a veteran soldier, sailor, explorer, cartographer, and colonist. A president of the Jamestown, VA colony and its prisoner; he explored the “place to which tribute is brought" at the Potomac and mapped “at a big river" the Chesapeake Bay.  

The “Admiral of New England” originated the name in a draft of his map of 1614 (published in 1616) dedicated to Charles I, then a sixteen year-old Prince.Charles was invited to anglicize the “barbarous” Indian names but most were replaced with the exception of the Charles River named after him and Cape Ann, named after his mother, Queen Anne of Denmark.

 Cape Ann first appeared on Smith’s map as Cape Trabigzanda in gratitude to the Turkish noblewoman who befriended him while a slave. Smith also named the “Three Turks Heads” the islands off Rockport for the gladiators he beheaded in battle and they were not renamed until the 19th century.

The years 1620-30 saw the first plantings of Massachusetts towns, inspired by “merchant adventurers” in England eager to invest in the new world.  Leaders of the “adventures” were often men of high social standing with connections to financial backers, Puritan convictions and religious dissidents eager to follow. Other colonists sought out the fresh opportunities of a new land; some minor lords and ladies with servants but none of the practical skills needed to survive.

Plymouth is the oldest town name, continuously occupied since 1620 with the settlement of Plimouth Plantation led by William Brewster. It was followed by the Wessagusett or Weston Colony in 1622 at present Weymouth, led by Thomas Weston.  Poor planning, hunger, desperation, conflicts and thefts from the Massachuset tribe led to its failure. The colony was reestablished as Weymouth (after that name in Dorset, England) in 1623, but failed again and its colonists dispersed to Plymouth or back to England. 

That same year, the Dorchester Company settled at present Gloucester, backed by merchant adventurers from Dorchester, England and led by Roger Conant. The colonists were mostly from Gloucester, England but the city wasn’t formally named until 1642. The first company landed at Half Moon Beach and settled nearby, setting up fishing stages at what is now Stage Fort Park where a memorial tablet marks the spot. Life in Gloucester was harsh and the colony was short-lived. It was reorganized under the leadership of John Endecott and moved to Naumkeag. That name refers to the Indian tribe living close to present Salem, renamed in 1626. 

Closer to Boston, Samuel Maverick had established residence at Noddle’s Island around 1624, now East Boston, and owned the “good spring nearby” of Winnisimmet, called Chelsea in 1739 after the neighborhood in London. Chelsea then included Revere, Winthrop and parts of Saugus. The area now known as Lynn was first settled in 1629 by Edmund Ingalls but first incorporated in 1631 as Saugus, the Nipmuck name. It included present Saugus, Lynnfield, Nahant, Reading, and Swampscott.  Lynn was taken from King's Lynn in the county of Norfolk, England by early settlers.

Thomas Walford was the original English settler of Mishawaum or Mishaumut in 1624, later Charles Towne at the head of the River, trading in furs. He was joined by the Great Migration led by John Winthrop in 1629 to establish the Bay Colony. For the Boston pilgrims from Boston, England, the lack of fresh water at Charles Town and sickness made it a very difficult first year. 

In the distance, a solitary column of smoke rose across the Mystic River each day from the promontory of what was known then as Mashauwomuk, Shawmutt and finally the Shawmut peninsula. It came from the fires of the only European occupant of Boston at the time, the Rev. William Blaxton aka Blackstone. He had settled in the area of present Boston Common and Beacon Hill around 1625 after a stint at Weymouth. Blaxton and Winthrop met, an invitation was extended to reestablish the colony at Shawmut and share the fresh water spring, and the rest as they say is history. Blackstone has a number of streets, parks, businesses, monuments, plaques, a river, valley and a town named after him in Boston, across Massachusetts and in Rhode Island where he finally settled. 

Boston was named on September 17, 1630. It owes its name to a 7^th century abbot known for his kindly spirit and good humor. Botolph prayed for the fishermen in a village with “more widows than wives” and the name, roughly translated from the Anglo-Saxon, meant “helper of boats”. His monastery developed into St. Botolph’s Church and the town that sprung up was “Botolph’s tun” or “town”, then “Botolphston” and finally Boston. References to St. Botolph are found at many places in Boston, its unofficial patron saint.

Massachusetts created four counties in one act of incorporation some twenty three years after the landing at Plymouth, all from counties where most of the colonists lived in east England. These were Suffolk, Essex, Middlesex and Norfolk. In each of the first three, there were originally eight towns with six in Norfolk. Worcester, Hampshire, Berkshire, Hampden, Plymouth, Bristol, Barnstable, and Duke Counties were added later, also English towns. Nantucket was the one exception that retained its ancient Indian name.

New England towns took the suffixes of towns in England, namely: -ton or -town; -bury, -boro, or -burg; -bridge, -brook, -chester, -field, -ford, -ham, -land, -mouth, –minster, -port, -wich or –wick and -ville. Town suffixes ending in –ton or –town predominated. Some adopted Biblical names such as Canaan, Goshen, Providence, Prudence and Sharon. Colonists who spread out from Massachusetts to Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont reflected their confidence in the New World with towns named Amity, Flagstaff, Freedom, Hope, Liberty, Success, Unity and Victory.

After the Rebellion, honor was given to its heroes by renaming streets and towns. A new Washington Street in Boston joined together the old Orange, Newbury, Marlborough, and Cornhill Streets between 1788 and 1872.  King Street was changed to State Street and Queen to Court Street on July 4, 1788. The towns of Adams, Brewster, Clinton, Franklin, Hamilton, Hancock, Hawley, Marion, Otis, Pepperell, Quincy, Randolph, Revere, Williams and several more were named or renamed after heroes of the Revolution in Massachusetts and across New England. There is hardly a city or town in Massachusetts that doesn’t have a Washington Street or Avenue and often both.